SUMMER MEETING. 85 



If you send altogether to commission men, the buyers know your 

 Ibrand or package in a day or two, and if you are caught with false 

 packages you will be the one too lose, for they will buy your fruit at 

 ^bout half price on account of the previous bad packing. Eemember 

 that the trade once dropped because of bad packing and poor fruit is 

 hard to regain, if it ever can be. Send your good fruit sorted by itself, 

 and if you send poor fruit, don't top out your package with good fruit ; 

 jovL will rue it if you do. If you don't do the packing yourself, watch 

 the man who does. He will not be likely to pack right if not watched 

 and instructed. The idea is just this : If you ever intend to succeed 

 in fruit culture, you must strive to grow the best fruit possible, and 

 pick at the proper time ; pack and consign right good fruit, and you 

 need have no fear of the consequence. The buyers are in the market 

 a,mong the sellers every day, and it only takes a few days to find out 

 what kind of fruit the grower is sending, and the buyer is there to buy 

 it on its merits. — " Green's Fruit-Grower." 



Does Fruit-Growing Pay? 



What a question ! Yet it is sometimes asked seriously. It seems 

 to be on a par with another droll inquiry, is life worth living ? It all 

 depends, don't you see. The life of a spendthrift or a scoundrel is not 

 worth much; nor is the life of an ill- managed orchard, mismanaged by 

 an ignorant jackanapes, very much better. Fruit-growing bears a 

 great resemblance to most other avocations. Who was the painter 

 who replied to the question of a tyro, "how he mixed his colors | " 

 *' With brains, sir." In our wanderings up and down the planet we 

 are apt to come across all sorts of plantations, which are provocative 

 of laughter, or tears, or — no, we won't. 



But let us consider. First, in order to grow good fruit — which is the 

 only kind that will pay — you must follow up the necessary conditions ; 

 you must keep the land in a high state of fertility, which can only be 

 effected by regular manuring : that is, by top-dressing with the best 

 fertilizers at least once a year. Of course we include in this the ab- 

 sence of weeds, or any kind of growth, upon the land which is cropped 

 with fruit-bearing trees. If the trees do not pay, away with them : 

 if they will, give them a fair chance. 



Fruit is every year becoming more plentiful, and the increased 

 'Consumption keeps pace with the supply. If this condition forbids 

 just profits to the individual in fruit culture, it improves the chances 



